As per a study by RMSI, a Noida-based IT consulting firm, on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports for key coastal cities, due to the rising sea levels by 2050, a significant number of population, property, and infrastructure in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram along four other cities — Mumbai, Chennai, Vizag, Mangaluru — will be under water.
The IPCC assessment report indicates that India’s sea level will rise significantly by 2050. Sea-level rise in the North Indian Ocean (NIO) occurred at a rate of 1.06–1.75 mm per year from 1874 to 2004 and has accelerated to 3.3 mm per year in the past two-and-a-half decades (1993–2017).
RMSI used its coastal flood modeling capabilities to map the cities’ inundation (submergence) levels based on various sea-level rise forecast studies. Based on inundation, it conducted an analysis to identify the number of buildings and key infrastructure that could be potentially submerged in each of these cities.
